Woodbridge XC club grooming future stars

BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer

WOODBRIDGE — The Woodbridge Crimson Knights cross country team is sending nine runners to the USA Track & Field (USATF) Junior Olympics in Schaumburg, Ill., to compete for national titles Dec. 11.

All 46 members of the co-ed cross country team competed in the state championships at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona Nov. 7, and the entire team qualified for competition at the regional championships in Ithaca, N.Y.

The Crimson Knights, founded in 1990 and a USATF member since 1998, will field runners in four of the five possible groups at Schaumburg. Runners ages 7-8 compete in what is called the sub-bantam group, 9/10-year-old runners compete in the bantam group, 11/12-year-olds make up the midget group, and runners ages 13-14 compete in the youth group.

The top 20 performers at the state championships in each group were eligible to race at the regions.

“Every member of the team qualified for the regions,” Crimson Knights’ coach Robert Peters said. “Some decided not to make the trip because of cost.”

The running club is self-funded, and Peters and co-coach and club President Ben Campbell are pleased with the number of runners on the team as well as the team’s success.

Both Campbell and Peters have coached their own children with the Crimson Knights, and are noticing that time spent with the Knights often bodes well for future success at the high school level.

“It’s a great club and the team has many kids in the local high schools,” Peters said. “In fact, a lot of them are all-county runners and state champions. It’s nice to see them continue their career after they graduate from the Knights.”

Campbell’s daughters, Theresa and Elizabeth, are running for Mount St. Mary’s High School; and Peters’ son, Matthew, and his daughter, Samantha, run for Union Catholic.

“The focus of the club is on introduction to the sport,” Campbell said. “We don’t want to burn them out before they get to high school, and as a result we are seeing some kids at the high school level running well.”

Runners in the sub-bantam group completed their season at the regions, as there are no races for runners in this age bracket at the national level. Making the trip to Schaumburg in the bantam group will be Emily-Claire Miller and Ashley Witkowski of St. John Vianney School in Colonia, and Daniel James out of James Monroe School in Edison. Runners in this group race a distance of 3,000 meters.

Michael Fernandes will represent the Crimson Knights in the midget race also of 3,000 meters. Fernandes attends the St. James School in Woodbridge.

Alexandria Presley from Maxson Middle School in Plainfield will run in the youth group at a distance of 4,000 meters.

Nadia Hernandez, Lauren Maier and Kyle Witkowski will also run in the youth group as eighth-graders.

“These three eighth-grade runners are excellent, young running talents,” Campbell said. “They are already running equivalent times of varsity cross country runners at any of the surrounding high schools in the Middlesex County/Union County area.”

Timothy Miller, a freshman at St. Joseph in Metuchen, rounds out the field on nine and will also compete in the youth group.

“The team has a long history of competition in the USATF cross country programs,” Campbell said. “The team has had over 100 runners qualify to compete in the USATF national championships since 1994.”

Although the team has yet to have an individual national champion, they are no strangers to success.

“We have had several regional championship titles and one New Jersey Junior Olympic Youth State Team Championship,” Campbell said. “The team title was won during the 2003 season.”